Maestro Ignat Solzhenitsyn

A founding resident company of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia is a 33-member ensemble led by Ignat Solzhenitsyn, now in his sixth season as Music Director. The Orchestra, founded in 1964 by Marc Mostovoy, has a well-established reputation for distinguished performances of repertoire from the Baroque period through the twenty-first century.

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia will perform four pairs of concerts during its subscription season from September through March in the Kimmel Center’s intimate, 600-seat Perelman Theater. In the 2009 – 2010 season, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia celebrates its forty-fifth anniversary with glorious programs featuring timeless classics, little-known works, and dazzling soloists.

The season opens with Maestro Solzhenitsyn conducting "All-Haydn", featuring Rostropovich Cello Competition Winner Wendy Warner. The October concerts are in collaboration with the American-Swedish Historical Museum, the Swedish Colonial Society, and generously sponsored by the Wallace Foundation. "Scandinavian Perspectives" features an exploration of works by Scandinavian composers is conducted by guest Dirk Brossé. Maestro Solzhenitsyn returns to conduct the final two concert pairs of the 09-10 season: January and February’s "Mozart | Mendelssohn | Rubinstein" with pianist Mikhail Yanovitsky, and March’s "Brahms Violin Concerto" with soloist Soovin Kim and the Brahms First Serenade closes the 09-10 season.

Additional concerts in the 09-10 season include a performance at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts with noted jazz trio Medeski, Martin & Wood; a performance in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts under the direction of renowned Bach scholar Helmuth Rilling; and the Philadelphia premiere of Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. Also in store for 09-10 is a residency at the brand-new Lansdale Center for the Performing Arts; soloists and chamber groups drawn from the COP’s core musicians will include Music Director Ignat Solzhenitsyn and Concertmaster Gloria Justen.

The Orchestra has performed with such internationally acclaimed guest artists as Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mstislav Rostropovich, Issac Stern, Rudolph Serkin, The Eroica Trio, Jean-Pierre Rampal, The Romeros Guitar Quartet, Julie Andrews, Bernadette Peters, Ben Folds, Elvis Costello, Sylvia McNair, Steven Isserlis, Joseph Silverstein, Ransom Wilson, Gerard Schwarz, Jahja Ling and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. The ensemble also travels regularly, having toured the United States, Europe and Israel.

A brilliant concert pianist and conductor, Maestro Solzhenitsyn has been hailed by the Washington Post as “an interpreter of probing intellect as well as an avid risk taker.” His artistic vision has led the Orchestra to program more works from the late Classical and early Romantic periods, as well as fascinating twentieth-century works for chamber orchestra and world première commissions. A winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Maestro Solzhenitsyn is a member of the piano faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music and has just released a new solo piano recording, Solzhenitsyn Plays Brahms.

Call 215-545-5451 for subscriptions and information or visit the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia Web site.